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The Purveyors of Political Pandering
By Thomas D. Segel
January 30, 2004

They're Back! Yes, it is time, once again, for the ears and eyes of Americans to be subjected to endless political pandering pontifications, which will be unending for the next ten months.

It matters not what your political leaning, if you are a person who demands truth in advertising, every candidate climbing up on a stump should be strongly chastised. This crowd of opportunists wouldn't know honesty if it was tattooed on the ends of their noses.

As a member of the warrior class, I will use military conflict to illustrate my point. Today we have the Republicans trying to prosecute a war as if they were looking for the Blue Light specials at Kmart. They have run everything on the cheap from the number of troops needed to control terrorist activity, to adequately providing for the health, comfort, care and treatment of our reserve forces, which make up a major portion of available manpower.

The high priced egoists, who hold Department of Defense positions based more on party loyalty than war-fighting knowledge, are deeply offended when senior military officers point out the ignorance of many Washington originated policies and decisions.

From poor intelligence to even poorer logistical support, those in power positions inside the Washington beltway have a long record of bad calls.

Most of the dialog coming from the Democrat side of the aisle is uttered by a rapidly diminishing collection of presidential candidates. We have the anti-war candidates, the pro war-anti war candidates, the pro war candidates and all shades in-between. The sad thing is we don't get honesty from a single voice in that arena. It is also important to note this massive political misinformation campaign is aided and abetted by the mass media.

We don't have detailed data on the military serving in Iraq but we do have a clear picture of how facts and fiction were mixed in the reporting of our war in Vietnam. It can only be assumed similar distortions will prevail in this conflict.

Back in the days of Vietnam, our political pundits kept telling us the poor and minorities were fighting the war. The truth was three fourths of those in Vietnam came from families with incomes well above the poverty level and half of those in country were from middle-income backgrounds. In Vietnam 79% of the personnel had high school educations or higher.

Belying the war fought by the poor and minority as insisted by politicians, is the fact that 88.4% of those who served in Vietnam were Caucasian, 10.6% were black and only 1% listed for all other minorities. This is far different that the percentages which formed the racial makeup of the United States during those years. As for those killed in combat, 86.8% were Caucasian, almost equal to the percentage of that ethnic group serving in the war zone.

Another area where misinformation was pursued instead of searching out the facts was the performance of Vietnam military personnel. Instead of drug-dazed slackers, 97% of the Vietnam veterans served honorably and were so recognized upon discharge. A full 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country. Even today, 66% of the Vietnam veterans would serve again if called.

Finally, 82% of Vietnam veterans who saw heavy combat believe the war was lost because our political elite had backbones, which ranged in strength somewhere between Jell-O and Perrier. Interesting also is the fact that 75% of the public agrees it was a failure of political will and not ineffective force of arms which brought about our defeat.

What has all this to do with the political arena in America today? Well, we are starting to hear the same old tunes being sung again. But, it may be today the political class will need a new set of notes and words. There are many who know the old notes were false. They now have firm facts and figures about the past and they remember. These truths were garnered long after our political class brought about one of the most devastating defeats in American history. The same political clouds are forming again over Iraq. Today's big question is.... will Americans be gullible once again?

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.